THE AUTHOR'S JEWEL, NUMBER XVIII. TOM JONES. To the kind reader of our sober clime, True knights, chaste dames, huge giants, kings despotic; But all these, save the last, being obsolete, Byron. THIS is adjudged by the author, and pronounced by the public, to be his master piece. It is formed on the most regular plan of the comic Epic; wrought by successful labour to uncommon excellence; diversified by episodes, enlivened by incidents, and sparkling with humour; the play of wit is lively and agreeable; the satire is pungent and strong, and the whole conduct of the plot, such as to excite interest, and command admiration. He who seeks in books, for a knowledge of the world, and an acquaintance with life; who desires to gain the fruits of experience, without the toil of action, and the bitterness of pain; who would acquire wisdom, by seeing the depravity of the heart developed in the iniquity of others, and grasp the sub. stance of practical philosophy, in preference to wandering after the shadow of sentiment, speculation and fancy, will peruse this Novel, with the avidity of pleasure, tempered by the earnestness of instruction. Whatever can confirm the principles, or expand the mind; soften the heart, or correct the manners, may be found in Tom Jones; and he who misses the clue to unravel all the deceitful mazes of the human heart, in its perusal, cannot expect improve ment from the lessons of wisdom, or knowledge, from the precepts of experience. We here behold the school, in which Vice is acquired, the Stage on which it is displayed, the vestures in which it is disguised, and the tomb in which it is interred; on which Shame inscribes an epitaph of infamy, and Anguish and Disease, erect the trophies of their tri. umph. The fable of this interesting work, has the broadest foundation of all of Fielding's Novels; it comprises a greater variety of characters, and incidents, and includes almost every relation of social life, or detail of probable adventure. A foundling protected and reared from infany, by an unknown and opu. lent uncle; till fraudulently deprived of that protection, by the base arts of a depraved brother; then cast forth to wander through life destitute of fortune, and ignorant of every profession, affords a fertile and pleasing theme, fraught with knowledge and instruction. The collateral and subordinate events are equally happy: and the consequences of Jones' ners. banishment, display a universal view of life and manTo use the author's own words, who is pursu. ing the metaphor of a bill of fare, and likening his book to a publick ordinary: "The provision which we have here made is no other than Human Nature. Nor do I fear that my sensible reader, though most luxurious in his taste, will start, cavil, or be offended, because I have named but one article. The tortoise, as the alderman of Bristol well learned in eating, knows by much experience, besides the delicious calipash and calipee, contains many different kinds of food; nor can the learned reader be ignorant, that in human nature, though here collected under one general name, is such prodigious variety, that a cook will have sooner gone through all the several species of animal and vegetable food in the world, than an author be able to exhaust so extensive a subject." Criticism, in estimating the qualities of Fielding's Novels, can say little except in praise; and that lit. tle, which hardly partakes of the positive nature of reproof, but rather of regret, is wholly excited by the vulgarity of some of his scenes, and the gross indelicacy of partial incidents. Such are the charac ters and the conduct of Molly Seagrim, and the amours of Mrs. Waters with Jones himself, her reputed, but not real son, with many others of equal impropriety. But here, the subject of Fielding, enters to plead his vindication, for a picture of Human Nature, such as our author professed to draw, could not consist of unmingled excellence and virtue : which would have made it Romance, and not reality. With as much reason, and effect, might a painter omit to shade his canvass, as for a writer to avoid such shadowings of the human character. Yet some may disavow the force of this reasoning, from another principle; that he who imitates Nature, should copy her beauties, which yield pleasure, and not her deformities, which beget disgust: that he should produce what is termed the beautiful ideal; selecting the most agreeable, and discarding all ugly and improper objects; that he should conceal what is improper, and display what is charming. Against this argument, we may oppose the weight of a first principle; the object of fictitious history, which is instruction, conveyed through the channels of amusement and delight. A bare representation of decency and virtue, could never effect so fundamental a utility. Propriety is totally incompatible with humour and wit; and the charms of virtue, could never inspire an abhorrence of vice, much less convey an insight into the complicated villainy of mankind. It is the violation of order, good breeding, and even of decency, that beget the ridiculous, and produces mirth out of folly. Thus the inconsistency of Philosopher Square's virtue, when discovered in Molly Seagrim's garret, is a great source of amusement, as well as that lady's vows of constancy, when contrasted with her revealed infidelity. The gross vulgari ty of the battle in the church yard, as well as the Inn, also contributes to the humour of the work; for how inimitably has Fielding described them, in all the pomp of mock-heroic warfare! Had such scenes been omitted; had he stripped his characters of their vices, and follies, their passions and inconsistencies, their vulgarity, lowness, and absurd affectation, he would have produced a work, which the serious and the pious, the moral and the melancholy, would alone have perused; while the lover of wit, humour, and merriment, could not have been allured by its graces and levity, from the poison of illicit pleasures and destructive dissipation, to religion and virtue. Tom Jones, is a Sermon adapted to those, who would shun the precepts of the pulpit, and laugh at the grave admonitions of a dry moralist. It abounds with lessons of purity, examples of the blessings of religion, and the curses of crime. If an obscene, or lascivious picture, is too glowingly painted, so as to set in motion, the passions of a warm imagination, it is at the same time tempered, and quenched, by the dreadful consequences that attend upon the guilty. But after all, he has portrayed nothing, but what the most chaste fancy and innocent heart, has often con. ceived, or heard of; and he portrays it for our benefit, not corruption. He shows even the virtuous, that latent depravity of heart, which they should purify, and subject to the government of religion; he unmasks the world to the youthful tyro, and shews the rock and the gulf against which villainy may dash him, and pleasure allure him to destruction. If however, he is faulty in this respect, it is that he dwells too long upon the obscene, and expresses in language too lively, broad and emphatic, the plots and sensations of wickedness! He paints the feelings, whether good or bad, till every corres. pondent emotion rises in the breast of the reader; if that reader be virtuous, therefore, it will better him, |